商务英语信函写作中的关联与模糊

Relevance and Vagueness in Business English Correspondence

关联理论认为,语言交际是个明示推理过程,发话人应该提供尽可能关联的信息,使听话人能够以最小的处理努力去理解发话人的含义,达到最佳的语境效果。本文运用关联理论首先解释了商务英语信函中的语言模糊现象,然后以真实的商务信函为语料,探讨了写信人如何使用模糊语言明示话语信息,实现最佳关联,以准确表达交际意图,达到交际目的。

Relevance Theory proposes that communication is an ostensive-inferential process and the communicator, therefore, should provide the most relevant information so that the audience can understand the communicator＇s intention with the least processing effort. Using a relevance theoretical framework of analysis, the paper first elaborates the application of vagueness in business correspondences and then explores how, in the real business correspondences, vague expressions allow a writer to convey the communicative intentions precisely by processing correctly the optimal relevance.